To those of you who haven’t picked up The Orange Box in some form or another, shame on you. Now’s your best chance, as The Orange Box is on sale this weekend for 66% off. That’s a measly $10 for Half-Life 2, Episodes One and Two, the glorious Portal, and the love of Sam Naylor’s life, Team Fortress 2. That’s $2 a game! Hop on Steam and buy it now! If you remain unconvinced after all of my yelling, check out our review of the, in my opinion, inferior Xbox 360 port of The Orange Box.

In a recent interview at E3, Valve Software’s Erik Johnson stated that the PS3 port of The Orange Box was done “mostly” by EA. So if it was only “mostly” done by EA, does that mean that Valve actually had a hand in making a game they consistently denied being a part of? Why does that even matter?

The only reason this could be a big deal is because Gabe Newell has always been down on the PS3, even going so far as to call it “a waste of everyone’s time.” Valve has always denied having a hand in the PS3 port, placing all of the blame for The Orange Box’s issues squarely on EA’s shoulders.  If Valve did, in fact, help make the Orange Box suck-fest, it would certainly make them look like a bunch of dicks.

There is a very vocal member of the GameTrailers forums, shhhoff, that has gone to great lengths to compile a list of “evidence” to support the claim that Valve worked on this game. The thing is Valve did work on the game — they fucking developed it! They did not, however, work on the port of the game to the PS3, or so they’ve said for the past 10 months.

Now Valve’s Erik Johnson says, “Well, EA handled most of the PS3, so I don’t have a lot of insight into that — they did most of the work”. The use of the word “most” is supposedly an indicator that not all of the work was done by EA.  The conspiracy theorists out there fail to realize that EA has a history of farming out it’s work, and have taken that to mean that at least some of it must have been done by Valve.

So shhhoff would like you to believe.  The reason I don’t buy it is because I’m a logical person.  Shhhoff’s blog is called “Gabe Newell – the fat princess” and is filled with animated gifs making fun of the Valve co-founder.  He even has a petition for a “real” patch to fix the game, which he is apparently very upset with.  His efforts reek of fanboyism, even if the PS3’s Orange Box does, in fact, still need some attention.

Of course, it’s easy to take that comment to mean whatever you want. It’s easy to assume that since Erik Johnson said “most” that he inadvertently spilled the beans on Valve’s involvement. I, personally, don’t think he said anything incriminating, but I’m interested to see how everyone else decides to spin his words.

Thanks to Mike for the tip.

Microsoft’s E3 Conference, which you can experience via our live blogging, has just revealed an exciting Xbox 360 title.  GladOs (yes, “she” was a guest speaker) has announced a new Portal game will be released exclusively for the Xbox 360 this year.

Portal: Still Alive will be coming to Xbox Live this autumn, containing new test chambers and new achievements for the experienced player.

We’ll bring you more on this new title as it comes.

When Eurogamer.net spoke with Valve’s Marketing Director, Doug Lombardi, he explained there would be no new Portal in 2008, but the next edition of the series would be something special.

Lombardi said:

“In typical Valve tradition, it won’t be Portal with different colors. I think that when you hit something like that, you have two choices: you can quickly replicate it and stick it out there – do the opportunistic thing and cash in on it; or you can do the crazy thing like we did after Half-Life was so successful and go off and try and say, ‘Okay, that was revolutionary, so its successor has to be equally as revolutionary.”

By continually pushing innovation and creating revolutionary gameplay, the Orange Box alone has picked up over 100 awards to date. While the wait before the next Portal may be long, rest assured when it finally drops it should be something special.

Source: Eurogamer

While conversing with X-Play’s Morgan Webb, Portal lead designer Kim Swift confirmed the existence of Portal 2, saying “I believe Doug Lombardi, who is our lead marketing director at Valve, has announced Portal 2.” Companion Cube 2.0? Yes, please.

How many of us didn’t see this multi-award winning game coming back for a second round? Still, none of us knew how it would make us love it again. I was sure it’d be in the form of extra puzzles through some form of DLC, but according to Kim (or Doug) that we’ll be getting a fully fleshed out sequel to one of my top games of 2007.

We don’t know much else besides that, though. Will we learn more about Aperture and Chell? Might it arrive in time with Episode 3 in another ‘box’, or just hit XBLA or PSN (and Steam, of course)?

Will Jonathan Coulton give us another song to sing incessantly and unendingly?

Source: G4TV

Let’s preface this by saying that Steam is a free platform. You can go and create an account right now with no charge, and never buy a game. So while many will argue that it is unfair to compare the 15 million user base of Steam to the 10 million user base of World of WarCraft, which involves a recurring monthly fee, Valve is still an amazing company that really seems to understand their audience.

Valve fully deserves every bit of success they receive, and they will continue to be successful because they actively pursue innovation and enhance the video game industry with their passion as a whole.

Who else do you know that self-publishes games with a developer mindset? Who else packs five completely separate games (Orange Box) and sells it for $50-$60? Finally, who else trumps the competition by looking out for the consumer as opposed to the bottom dollar (I’m looking at you Games for Windows Live.)?

Blizzard is the only comparable competitor, and we all know how successful they are. This also doubles up as a big ‘F*** you’ from Valve to those that believe that the PC is a dead platform. Congratulations Valve, you deserve it — now give me Half Life 2: Episode Three.

Source: Steam

In a move many people wished had been made when the Orange Box launched, EA have announced that TF2, HL2:ep2 and Portal will soon be sold individually for PC.

Unless you use Steam, Valve’s digital distribution service, up until now the only way you have been able to buy the new games from Valve has been to get them as part of The Orange Box. If you were put off from buying all 5 games but still want to try the sweet, moist cake of Portal, or see what happens to everyone’s lovable mute, Gordon Freeman, you’re in luck.

In a conference call to investors, EA have said that they will soon be selling the new games individually and that they will be in stores for PC before the end of March. No word on if the 360 or PS3 versions will follow suit or if The Orange Box package will continue to be produced for PC.

Source: Videogamer

Needless to say, Valve have turned that around to the point where most gamers would much rather purchase games from Steam instead of the brick and mortar store down the street. And now they’re once again pushing forward the industry that we care so much about with Steamworks.

Steamworks was described to be “a suite of publishing and development tools (the same used in Valve’s Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box) that publishers and developers can attain, free of charge.”

And when they say suite, they mean it. Steamworks includes real-time sales tracking, an encryption system, auto-updating, territory control, voice chat, multiplayer matchmaking, social networking (including features such as Achievements) and development tools, including private betas and QA tools.

Jason Holtman, Valve business director, said “It just makes sense to put this stuff out there so developers don’t have to worry about the plumbing.” I’m not entirely sure what some of said ‘plumbing’ entails, but it’ll be made available free of charge and not just to clients of Steam, but to any developer regardless of whether or not they use Steam, Direct2Drive, or any other distribution system.

As far as the sale’s tracking goes, Holtman says you should “Forget NPD, forget ELPSA. You’ll know down to the finest details how many games have been sold every hour of the day, every day of the week. And that information is in real-time.”

I’m curious as to how many big-time developers will actually take to Steamworks

So, how do you one-up the value of the year (i.e. Orange Box)? When you’re Valve, you continue to innovate and evolve the industry that we love so much by introducing Steamworks.

Parties interested in Steamworks should contact Holtman at jasonh@valvesoftware.com or visit www.steamgames.com/steamworks.

Source: Next-Gen.biz

Merry Christmas, Mr. Freeman.

Life just got a little easier for those who have neglected gift-purchasing until the last minute. Every game ever released on Steam is now on sale for 10 – 50% off. There’s quite a bit of treasure in here.

The sale just kicked off today and ends January 1st, 2008, so you have roughly a week to stock up on some quality titles. Check out the official announcement here and click “start shopping now” to browse. To send a game as a gift, simply choose the gift option during checkout and you’re set.

Some of the more noteworthy sales are Company of Heroes for $22.45, Bioshock for $37.45, Civ 4 for $29.95, and Psychonauts, one of the most underrated games ever, for $9.95. Half-Life 2 is on sale for $19.95, but you’re still better off just buying Orange Box.

And I have to mention Call of Duty 4 for $44.95. That’s only five bucks off the normal price, but that’s a small price to pay for one of the best shooters ever made.

Merry Christmas, gamers.

Via Kotaku